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Ubuntu 20.04, sound and microphone stopped working

us flag

A few days ago I got the message that /boot is full. I went ahead and did some cleanup according to some stackoverflow posts, removed old kernel versions 5.4.X, now there is space again. Everything seemed to work that day. But a day later sound and microphone stopped working. I am running kernel version 5.8.0-55-generic

When booting, after I login, the screens now stay black for an extended period of time (maybe 30 seconds? 60?, waaaaay longer than before)

After it finally shows the desktop the sound icon in the tray is crossed out. Opening it shows:

First no devices at all, the list is completely empty.

After a while of system uptime some devices start to show. Right now it shows various HDMI outputs, headphones and digital audio. An hour ago it also showed the internal speakers. They did not work however. After some fiddeling the internal speaker is not displayed at all anymore. Only the HDMI outputs work, some of my monitors have speakers, those work.

For Input devices only the built-in microphone is showing, but it seems to not work, it gets detected by chrome, but a microphone test site I have used before now shows complete silence from the microphone.

Some info output:

inxi -SMA
System:    Host: kestrel Kernel: 5.8.0-55-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Budgie 10.5.1 
           Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: TUXEDO product: TUXEDO v: N/A serial: <superuser/root required> 
           Mobo: TUXEDO model: P9XXRC serial: <superuser/root required> UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.06RTR1 date: 07/17/2019 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.0-55-generic 

I've searched around already and tried a bunch of things:

echo "options snd-hda-intel model=generic" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

echo "options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
echo "blacklist snd_soc_skl" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

None of this helped, I removed the entries from the config files afterwards.

sudo alsa force-reload
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-sof-pci snd-sof-intel-byt snd-sof-intel-ipc snd-sof-intel-hda-common snd-hda-codec-realtek snd-soc-hdac-hda snd-sof-xtensa-dsp snd-sof-intel-hda snd-sof snd-hda-codec-generic snd-hda-ext-core snd-soc-acpi-intel-match snd-soc-acpi snd-soc-core snd-hda-codec-hdmi snd-compress snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-hda-intel snd-intel-dspcfg snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-rawmidi snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-timer (failed: modules still loaded: snd-hda-codec-realtek snd-hda-codec-generic snd-hda-codec-hdmi snd-hda-intel snd-intel-dspcfg snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-timer).
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-sof-pci snd-sof-intel-byt snd-sof-intel-ipc snd-sof-intel-hda-common snd-hda-codec-realtek snd-soc-hdac-hda snd-sof-xtensa-dsp snd-sof-intel-hda snd-sof snd-hda-codec-generic snd-hda-ext-core snd-soc-acpi-intel-match snd-soc-acpi snd-soc-core snd-hda-codec-hdmi snd-compress snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-hda-intel snd-intel-dspcfg snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-rawmidi snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-timer.

reboot

sudo apt-get install --reinstall alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload
reboot




rm ~/.config/pulse/ -rf
reboot

None of these things changed anything at all, sound and microphone stay silent.

What can I do?

EDIT: Maybe a week after the problem showed up, it has now magically vanished, everything works again. I am confused.

mangohost

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.